Our Footprint

Who are we?​

The Cool World Climate Path is a physical, feet-on-the-ground experience that highlights the key challenges associated with climate change and offers real-world tools to empower people to address these challenges in a concrete, holistic and meaningful way.

​These include:​

Fog Harvester: This experimental installation has proved a highly successful way of using the ‘edge effect’ to harvest the fog and mist of the West Coast and convert it into water that is stored in tanks to see us through the long dry summers. A similar method of collecting water is used in arid environments as diverse as the deserts of Chile and in the high mountains of Nepal.

Earth Bricks: Compressed earth is used to make the brick of the future. Using a fraction of the energy required to make a cement or clay brick, our Earth Bricks are ‘Agrement’ certificated for use in any conventional structure.

Biodigester: This intriguing installation shows how sewerage and other waste from the average home can be used to produce methane gas for cooking. Stored below ground for safety reasons, exciting graphics show visitors exactly how one of the most efficient and easy-to-implement domestic recycling systems works.

Solar Park: Our newly completed Solar Park consists of an array of locally built photo voltaic panels generating significant power for the farm.

Biodiversity Corridor: Stretching alongside the Kasteelberg and consisting of more than 20 kilometres of uninterrupted Fynbos (the endemic vegetation of the Cape Floral Kingdom, recognised as one of the smallest but richest in the world) our biodiversity corridor is the longest stretch of Fynbos outside of a reserve. Designed in consultation with specialists from Stanford University, it represents a willingness on the part of local farmers to preserve this rich and threatened resource. A shorter walk through the Renosterbos is also under construction.

Climate Change Crops (C3) Exhibit: With global temperatures on the increase and precipitation erratic and unreliable, our C3 exhibit has attracted the attention of many. Originally designed to show emerging farmers a wider range of arid crops and how to grow them, the exhibit has grown to be a treasure of best practice in this critical area.

The Multicrop Matrix: A three dimensional puzzle that ‘fits’ several compatible crops together to optimise use of light, water, nutrition, as well as human and animal intervention, as nature intended. The goal is to empower emerging farmers to produce more produce, more cost effectively, using less space, fewer pesticides and less chemical fertiliser.

Animal Tractors: The incomparably elegant system of confining animals (generally in a pen or a mobile coop) to harness their natural inclination to peck, scratch, root, till and fertilise the land in order to prepare, clean or maintain it. Pig, cattle and sheep tractors will soon be followed by chicken and bunny tractors.

Organic Vegetable Gardens: Two organic vegetable gardens provide the perfect place to show kids where food should come from, and to demonstrate best practice to visiting emerging farmers. We also provide community gardens, complete with irrigation and all the advice locals need to grow their own produce. The next step will be a Cool World Farmer’s Market that will provide them with a reliable and regular outlet to the public.

Light up your House: A project that makes a small solar pack consisting of solar panel, inverter and 5 LED lights available to people living in shacks and farm cottages without electricity.

Cool Loo: Last but – as our younger visitors will insist – not least; a composting toilet that doesn’t flush, doesn’t connect to the mains, doesn’t even lead to a septic tank, but does supply us with clean, healthy, pathogen-free fertiliser.